My view: Brazilian families need to find more than protests and futbol

Comments

I came across this article by chance. It brought memories of many times we would
stand for anything and everything. It's easy to see, if you are not bribed
by the food stamps program, our country is growing in opposite direction to
order and progress. Bittersweet memories. It's amazing to me the fact we
have survived this far without a civil war or a serious rebellion like a few
countries we saw these past months. We can sure vote, but I'm not sure it
will help once election's system is totally corrupted. Most seems to have
lost the desire to fight for a better future, and allow the media to dictate the
steps to a better life taking us to the social tragedy we live today.
People's dreams don't surpass the next weekend with few rare
exceptions. The majority of our hospitals, schools and cities are in need of an
urgent intervention. Not everything is bad right? We still have gorgeous
landscapes and people with open hearts and great spirits, but the Brazilian
family core values are being massacred. God please help us, because we have
already tried everything else.

UtahBlueDevilDurham, NC

July 9, 2014 6:12 a.m.

Angie - no doubt my view is tainted or shaped by the fact that I deal with the
executives of the Petrobas exclusively, and the employees of my own company.

aa66Miami, FL

July 7, 2014 6:59 p.m.

I lived 30 years in Brazil and have lived 30 years in US. I survived through the
military government mentioned. We didn't have much choice but sure families
were stronger than today. One thing is to visit Brazil or spend some time as a
'gringo'. Another is to live there. Brazilians love to reception and
are opened to everyone. Like the article said, where we see misery we also see
charity and big smiles. Each one see differently. I found clear in the article
that the people in Brazil is good but is lost, and they really are. The
government is the biggest mischief. Some believe in it. Others get to see what
it's all about. Other's need to move out to be able to give a life to
their families and to keep the respect once lost in our green-yellow country. We
are not proud of it and we defend. Others get as much as they can back
exploiting the system, and yell "All is well". Biased media. Great point
of view in the article. It should be translated to other languages so the world
would really know what Brazil, unfortunately, has become.

Angie BrazilSao Paulo, 00

July 7, 2014 5:36 p.m.

UtahBlueDevil... small world or not, my father worked at Petrobras in Paulinia
for 32 years. He could tell you better of the repression around the company if
you think different of the government, because Petrobras IS a government in its
majority. He also spent years silent because he wasn't able to simply
comment inside the company of another candidate afraid of threats. We were a
middle class family and for the last ten years we are fighting to keep our heads
out of the water. It's fun to see the World Cup games stadiums packed with
people cheering because the media here is not showing up the hundreds of
protests happening outside the gates. Like USA we have other parties and those
you knew probably are the government supporters. Anything different is
persecuted and put down. Like my dad was, even in his retirement pay. Petrobras
executives are named by it and paid to say Brazil is great! Go to a hospital or
to a school and you see the truth.

UtahBlueDevilDurham, NC

July 7, 2014 2:27 p.m.

Angie... I read your comments and I wonder at them. I do significant work with
Petrobras, and have spent weeks on end there, spent many hours working with
locals, and I have to say your overall vision of doom is not what these people
have shared with me. I think ones story depends on their perspective.... it
isn't too hard to find people even in the state of Utah that would report
that they view their own government as being deeply corrupt.

The
thing I do come back from Brazil is the optimism of the people... their joy of
life, love of family and willingness to open their homes to new people. I guess
I am glad the Brazil I visit isn't the Brazil described here. Then again,
the same can be said about here too.. whether someone visits the bronx, versus
mid town New York. The view of the world will be greatly different based on the
people interacted with.

Angie BrazilSao Paulo, 00

July 6, 2014 10:05 p.m.

This is perhaps the most correct article ever written about the reality of life
in Brazil! For all those that live in Brazil and experienced all these events
from military regimen to the Collor era (the impeached president) to Real and PT
(the last bunch in the government for the last 10+ years), feels each line
written here deeply in our soul! As economy and life in general is corrupted in
Brazil, families are being destroyed! Artists and singers teach how to betray
and get advantage in the daily series on TV. Government invents laws to be
harder to marry but easier to divorce. It hurts to see people buying 50" TVs
but their kids are dying of overdose! If you are honest you are bashed with
abuse! It's so hard to change what's wrong because corruption goes
from the grocery store in the corner to Brasilia! We want Brazil to WIN the
World Cup because we need some positive joy. Americans have no clue what the
corruption in this country has made to our families especially our children.
It's a scary place to raise them, unless we adults learn how to vote and
change from within.

Clairhyrum, UT

July 6, 2014 7:05 p.m.

This article is spot on correct. When we vote in corrupt Governments the people
suffer while the leaders become rich. The right of the inner spirit to be free
is stomped on. We are beginning to see the signs of wide spread corruption even
in the United Sates of American. The truth is, "Power Corrupts, Absolute
Power, Corrupts Absolutely". Very, Very good article.

Ultra BobCottonwood Heights, UT

July 6, 2014 4:33 p.m.

When government loses control over the people it represents and serves, it is no
longer able to stand up to the evil forces of greed and begins a death spiral
caused by economic corruption. It has nothing to do with families.

In the case of Brazil, as with most of South and Latin America, the
governments were not able to stand up against the American corporations
corruptive influence and thus they were governed by absentee businessmen. It is
likely that the business war being waged on the American government is the same
businessmen that destroyed the economies of South and Latin America.

10CCBountiful, UT

July 6, 2014 8:34 a.m.

If there is one aspect of Brazil today that makes everything much more difficult
to overcome, it's the highly corrosive problem of corruption. Education,
family, striving to improve... all are eclipsed if corruption is rampant.

The US has been remarkably free of corruption - compared to Latin
America - yet our Supreme Court has inched us closer and closer to quid pro quo
corruption with their rulings that corporations are people, and money is free
speech.

If we make that last small step, and the Supremes rule that
bribery is free speech, all bets are off, and the American experiment is pretty
much over... at least for America.